A LocalSend alternative for Android that also serves a browser and a drive
LocalSend is excellent at the one thing it does: pick a device on the WiFi, send files, done. It is open source, cross-platform and needs no account. If that is all you need, keep it. This post is for the moment when you want the same thing and to browse the phone from a laptop, mount it as a drive, or pull files off a phone that nobody is holding.
Shelf is built on the same protocol LocalSend uses, so switching costs nothing on the other side: the people you exchange files with can stay on LocalSend and still see your phone. What Shelf adds is everything a NAS does.
Same protocol, so nobody has to switch
Shelf implements LocalSend v2: multicast announcements on 224.0.0.167:53317, HTTP registration, the prepare-upload / upload session, PIN protection and per-file accept. In practice:
- A LocalSend app on a laptop or another phone lists your Shelf phone as a device and sends to it. Files land in
Inbox/and show up in Shelf's Received list. - Shelf's Nearby tab lists LocalSend devices and sends to them, one or many at a time, with a message if you like.
- If you set a Nearby PIN, LocalSend asks for it before sending, exactly as it would with another LocalSend.
What LocalSend does not try to do
LocalSend is a sender. Every transfer starts on the device that has the file, and every receiving device needs the app. Three everyday situations fall outside that:
- Pulling. Your phone is on the shelf charging and you want a photo from it on the laptop. With a sender you have to walk over, pick the file and push it. With Shelf you open
http://phone:8080in the laptop's browser and take it. - Devices without the app. A friend's iPad, a work laptop you cannot install software on, a smart TV browser. Shelf needs only a browser on the other side.
- Working in place. Editing documents that live on the phone from a desktop app, or dragging a folder of photos into Lightroom. That wants a mounted drive, which Shelf provides over WebDAV and FTP.
Side by side
| Shelf | LocalSend | |
|---|---|---|
| Send phone-to-phone on WiFi | Yes (LocalSend protocol) | Yes |
| Receive from LocalSend apps | Yes | Yes |
| Browse and manage the phone from a browser | Yes, full file manager | No |
| Other device needs an app | No, a browser is enough | Yes |
| Mount as a network drive | WebDAV, FTP (Pro) | No |
| Resumable large uploads | 8 MB chunks, 4 connections, checksum | Restart on failure |
| Phone downloads a link for everyone | Yes, up to 8 connections | No |
| Chat and shared clipboard across devices | Yes | Text send only |
| Works without a router | Built-in private network | With the phone's hotspot |
| Chrome extension | Shelf Connect | No |
| Platforms | Android (plus any browser) | Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Price | Free; Pro for drive, links, accounts | Free |
Where LocalSend still wins
Two places, and they matter. LocalSend runs on every desktop and on iOS, so if your household is half iPhone, LocalSend is the app on those devices (they can still send to your Shelf phone, but Shelf itself is Android-only). And LocalSend is open source with a long track record; Shelf is a newer closed-source app with a privacy policy that promises the same zero-data behaviour but asks you to take its word for it.
Where Shelf wins
Anything that looks like a server rather than a courier: a browser link you can hand to anyone on the WiFi, a drive letter on the laptop, a download manager that fetches a 5 GB ISO once for the whole house, a Received list that tells you what arrived and from where, and a Chrome extension that makes "send this to my phone" a right-click.